New carwash plans to use on-site well, city questions water rights

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Quiky Car Wash plans to launch Feb. 20 followed by a grand opening in early March.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Quiky Car Wash will soon open another location in San Luis Obispo despite some dispute regarding its plans to use groundwater from a 26-year-old well on-site, according to The Tribune.

Hamish Marshall, vice president of Westpac Investments (property owner), reported that the new carwash should open around Feb. 20 on Calle Joaquin, followed by a grand opening in early March, stated the article.

The desire to utilize the groundwater has sparked city leaders to examine if there are any water rights San Luis Obispo may be losing in transferring ownership of the on-site well, continued the article.

Marshall explained in the article that the carwash could use potable water from the city instead.

“It’s simply that city water is very expensive. It’s potable water — to be using potable water on cars when we have the ability to use nonpotable water on cars seems a little silly,” said Marshall in the article.

The well, which was installed by the city in 1989, hasn’t been used in over 20 years, reported the article, and Christine Dietrick, city attorney, stated earlier this week that staff has not found record of an agreement permitting San Luis Obispo to install the well on the property.

The article noted that the city “has no ownership interest in the well or property,” according to a letter on Jan. 21 from Roy E. Ogden, attorney at Ogden & Fricks, which is representing the property owners.

The carwash plans to use water from the well “with or without the city’s cooperation,” added the article.

The attorney’s letter also stated that Quiky “will initiate litigation against the city and submit a formal claim for damages,” if the San Luis Obispo City County does not approve a quitclaim deed at its next meeting, continued the article.

Dietrick said that on Jan. 19 the City Council requested more analysis in a future closed-session meeting on “whether the city has any water right that it might be forgoing by relinquishing the well and its infrastructure,” reported the article, which will take place before the City Council’s regular meeting on Feb. 2.

Board members of Central Coast Grown, a local nonprofit, have raised concerns that “groundwater pumping could jeopardize the water table in that area,” informed the article, and that the well was shut down over 20 years ago due to groundwater contamination.